I am an award-winning journalist and a New York Times best selling author. My latest book is Newton's Football: The Science Behind America's Game, published by Ballantine in November 2013. My other books include The Billion Dollar Game: Behind the Scenes at the Super Bowl and Clapton's Guitar: Watching Wayne Henderson Build the Perfect Instrument. For five years I wrote the By the Numbers sports analytics column for the Wall Street Journal. I have written about sports, music, entertainment, pop culture and politics for a wide variety of national publications including The New York Times Magazine, Salon, Rolling Stone, Men's Journal, The Daily Beast, The Washington Post and The Village Voice. I'm a graduate of The University of Chicago and I live in Montclair N.J. with my wife, two kids, and my golden retriever, Tessie.
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The Economics of Scandal: A $55,735 Hiring Cost Arkansas Football Coach Bobby Petrino $18 million

“I have no one to blame but myself,” said Petrino in a statement on Tuesday night, after he was fired as the head football coach at the University of Arkansas. “I chose to engage in an improper relationship. I also made several poor decisions following the end of that relationship and in the aftermath of the accident. I accept full responsibility for what has happened.”

Here’s the problem. Petrino was doomed even before his fateful motorcycle accident.

There are two distinct parts to the Petrino scandal:

The unseemly relationship between a 51-year-old, married father of four and a 25-year-old former volleyball player. Sleazy though it may be, none of this is illegal and it’s really a matter between Petrino and his wife and family.

The fact that Petrino hired Jessica Dorrell over 158 other applicants for a $55,735 a year job as student athlete development coordinator who would report directly to him.

When he put his mistress on the payroll on March 29 three days before the accident, Petrino was doomed. Motorcycle accident or not, it was only a matter of time until one of those 158 other applicants or someone else with a grudge against Petrino dropped dime, and Petrino would lose his job over this.

Petrino’s hiring of Dorrell wasn’t just sleazy, it was almost certainly illegal–remember that University of Arkansas is a state university and Dorrell was getting paid with state funds–and in direct violation of any number of university personnel and conflict of interest policies.

This progression from breaking up a marriage to breaking the law is the reason why Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long had no choice but to terminate Petrino. And why he was able to fire him for cause and avoid paying the $18 million buyout stipulated in his contract.

“By itself, Coach Petrino’s consensual relationship with Ms. Dorrell prior to joining the football staff was not against university policy,” said Long. “However, in this case Coach Petrino abused his authority when, over the past few weeks, he made a staff decision and personal choices that benefited himself and jeopardized the integrity of the football program.”

While Petrino’s contract contained a standard “morals” clause, it was Petrino’s “abuse of authority” that made it easy for the university to take a hard line on the $18 million buyout.

Think about that. Petrino’s annual salary under his seven-year contract is $3.53 million. Which means that Dorrell’s salary was less than two percent of Petrino’s.

Clearly Petrino could have found a way to pay Dorrell out of his own pocket; Long reported that Petrino had already paid her $20,000 out of his personal funds. If Petrino felt the need to continue paying Dorrell he could have hired her as some sort of assistant or consultant and paid her quietly out of the petty cash in his personal account. Not the right thing to do, but also not illegal.

But by putting his girlfriend on the state payroll, Bobby Petrino sealed his fate. And cost himself $18 million, while trying to save fifty grand.

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I just read a story on Tiger Woods announcing the medical community (APA) is going to classify a man’s uncontrollable desire for sex as DSM-5: a mental disorder. Surely, Petrino hired her in order to have access to her all night and day. I just wonder if Petrino could get a shrink to testify he has DSM-5 and therefore can not be held accountable for his actions… (hey it’s worth a shot ). Let’s face it, if the professionals are going to say men cannot control themselves, who are we to argue? (kidding of course). Not to worry, Allen Petrino is a good coach. Someone will hire him. I’m thinking… Hmmmm… Miami? Ha, that would be golden….

John–Thanks for the amusing response. Taking his half-seriously, I think that any potential future employer has to weigh three factors. a) Petrino’s a good coach (so hire him) b) Petrino’s arrogant/stupid enough to handle this the way he did (so don’t hire him…) c) He lied to his boss.

I think C) is going to be the one that’ll give his next potential employer the most pause. Remember that Petrino’s got NFL experience, so don’t rule out an NFL gig.

Do you think he hired her to save the 55k or to just have her close to see her whenever he wanted at any time? Most people no matter if they have power or not do not plan ahead because do not believe they will be caught. So he wasn’t planning on loosing his millions. I think people keep wondering why he wasn’t thinking of his $$$$$

Sonja Thanks for your response. I honestly don’t know what Petrino was thinking. But I do think that if he wanted to be close to Ms. Dorrell, he could have done so without putting her on the payroll. You’re right though–he clearly wasn’t thinking about getting caught. But he should have been.